Donnie - I can only imagine the monster guys you will be picking up for 55's, ha-ha. That's great news about that many Major Plus Teams. Could you forward me Joe's email to gehall@hp.com? I'm not sure about the rules for talking about LVSSA on the SSUSA website or I'd ask you to post them. : ) Sounds like a great event so far.
Kurt - you guys just need to beat the Maverick's and everything else will hopefuly fall into place. Go Longhorns!

Ok Thanks i hope so we love to go to a Tourn. with 6 to 8 Major plus Teams in the 50s.Gehall that is exactly why were going there the Mavericks have a great Team an so do we it should be fun. Longhorns

Just saw the divisions for the 50-AAA, 55-Major and Major-Plus. Noticed that at least two '2' 55 division teams (Pace and Over the Edge)are being allowed to play down below their current SS-USA ratings of Major-Plus and Major. I guess LVSSA doesn't use SS-USA team rankings as they stated for sloting all teams.

Pace played last year in the Major division and did not fair too well. LVSSA does not do what they preach. They only do what makes them more money, so nothing different than the other organizations. Honestly, I have no problem with Pace playing down, since they did not win the Major division last year at LVSSA.

Over-The-Edge played AAA last year as well as 2 other teams rated Major. Over-The-Edge is not even as strong as the previous year, but they should still make a few AAA teams unhappy that they made the trip to play in Vegas. From what I hear this season, they are probably a strong AAA team this season and not a Major team, as they are not doing well in the Major division. That was a joke last year after all the tournaments they won the previous 2 years, but this year, it is probably a correct rating, from what I have heard. My forecast is that they will not win the tournament anyway, and I am not saying who will.

Supposedly in my 60 Major division, we have last year's winners at the 60 Major level from the Phoenix Worlds, playing down in 60 Major? They have been rated 60 Major Plus all year with SSUSA, as they should be.

All LVSSA does is contend that they do not let teams play down, and obviously, it is not true. I understand a few exceptions from time to time, but not this many. This is why their attendence is not where it could be. What do you think? I do not know and do not care. What can you do about any of this? You can continue to support LVSSA and bite the bullet, or do not attend any of their tournaments in the future. Simple enough!

Here we go again! The following is just hearsay from a friend. Apparently, LVSSA has allowed 2 more 60 Major teams to play down to AAA, and was supposedly seen on the LVSSA website. One team is a very good Major team and the other team is a very strong Major team. I am not mentioning the 2 teams by name, until I see this for myself, and for now, I could not find out anything about the 60 AA, AAA, or Major. There must be some rumbling and complaining by managers in these divisions and the brackets were probably taken down?? At this rate, LVSSA might as well just combine both divisions(Major and AAA) into the Silver division and make one large bracket. Again, this is just what I heard from a reliable source, that saw it for himself. I have not seen anything yet. Hopefully, this is going to be available and FIXED soon.

It must be difficult to do the correct thing here for LVSSA directors. Only 10 days to go to make plans to drive to Vegas, and no schedules for AA, AAA, and Major teams in the 60 division. Just use the SSUSA ratings and you are done. Any one that does not like that, give them their money back and they can go home.

With this economy, several players on my team need to know if they have to get a room for Thursday night. If we have late game times on Friday, they can drive up Friday morning. There cannot be more than 12 teams to consider, so this should be quite a simple solution. The problem is that too many teams were promised that they could play in a lower division. Maybe this will get done today or tomorrow. The perfect solution would be give all 12 teams their awards for first place, and make one division. Just kidding!?

Andy,
A 50 Major manager sent me a schedule for 60 major today. It is on the same spreadsheet as his 50 major schedule. 60 Major teams are Double Edge, Master Collision, Nor Cal Merchants, Robson & Texas 60's. This shows us starting at 8am Friday at Shadow Rock. I have no idea if this is final. Our manager got the same email from LVSSA but could not open it. 60 AAA teams are OTD/The Loop, Runner Blue, So Cal Gusto & South Florida Heat. See you in Vegas.
Bert
Master Collision
60 Major

I checked again, and I did not see anything. The times and brackets that my friend said he saw, is exactly what you are telling me. He said we play at 8 and 9:30 in the morning, then we are done. I think LVSSA took the 60 AA, AAA, and Major schedule off of their web site, because several managers have complained having to play teams out of their SSUSA ratings. Robson Ranch won the Phoenix Worlds in the 60 Major division last October, and have been playing Major Plus all year. So Cal Gusto is a good Major team, that defeated my team one out of 2 games in our last tournament, while we won our game by 2 runs. Runner Blue(I assume out of Utah) is a VERY strong Major team. Are you kdding me!!!!! You AAA teams should be asking for your fees back here. Gusto and Runner Blue should be in our bracket and Robson Ranch should be playing Major Plus. There must be some 6-7 teams playing down in LVSSA, but they swear that they do not do this, except in a few rare cases. Next year you may or may not see my team, but you will not see me. With the Winter Worlds in Vegas, Rock N Reno, and Mesquite, that is enough of Nevada for one year. I will go with the SSUSA tournaments from now on in Nevada. Ratings are tough to keep up on, but these kind of divisions are flat out absurd.

Our coach has not sent out a team schedule for LVSSA, because he is not sure what exactly is going on either. The good part is we will get 5 games, we will be in Vegas, and can still play this game that we love.

In conclusion, our coach just emailed me our schedule, and not a thing was done to correct teams in the incorrect divisions. As I said before, this will be my last time to play in LVSSA. I am not speaking for my team, just me. Our division could have been a lot larger. I do want to thank Joe Lecak, as he is the only one associated with this organization, that answers in a timely fashion, where most do not respond at all for LVSSA. You definitely deserve most of the credit for getting teams to attend. sorry that you do not have much support. Thanks again Joe for your help and common courtesy.

Andy, we 'West Coast' are rated Major in SPA and sere re-rated to Major Plus by SSUSA in April 2010, despite not winning a tournament in any division since 2008. We played in the SPA Major world in July and finished 4th out of 7 major rated teams, but due to our SSUSA rating have been told that we must play 55 Major Plus in Las Vegas. I just wish that all these associations would agree on rankings and be consistent in how they are applied. If the two major associations have different team ratings, I think teams should be allowed to play based on their actual record over the past 6 months and the input from the actual tourament directors where they played. I am getting very frustated with these secret committee rankings and or special treatment for select teams. Just let us know the rules/guidelines and apply them equally to every team.

I know what you mean and know how you feel. The last part that you wrote is one of the main issues/reasons that this has been happening. There ARE rules/guidelines, but they are NOT applied equally to every team.

We just returned home from the LVSSA 65 portion of the tournament. 3 Major teams, 1 Major Plus. Major Plus was No. 1 seed and went undefeated in the double elimination. They beat Bickerton Iron about 24-10. Tharlson (LV) 3rd and Texas Legands 4th. The Major teams were competitive in games between themselves. The Major Plus team (CA Classics) was just that much better. I'd prefer to have had an even playing field, but I enjoy competing also. Weather was 110 with no typical Vegas breeze, fields at Arroyo Grande were very nice and well taken care of between games. David did his normal "top notch" job umping the 60 Major bracet games. Congrats to CA Classics, good bunch of guys to play against, and David for working all those games straight in the heat.

I agree that it is good to play competitive teams. Maybe eliminate awards and LOWER the fees, and nobody will be so concerned about ratings and go to 2 divisions only. Bickerton being a very strong 65 Major team really lost 24-5, since they were given 5 runs. Why wasn't the Major Plus team playing in the Major Plus division with the other 3 Major Plus teams? It sounds like EVERY division has teams in the wrong bracket, WHY? This is exactly why I will NOT play in their tournaments in the future again.

No Andy, they we allowed to play as a Major team, no runs were given. Straight up. So we did score our 9, 10,or 11! There were 3 Major Plus teams, so they would have made that bracket an even 4. They applied as a Major and were accepted.
LVSSA may not realize it, but by not placing teams in the proper division, they are actually costing themselves a lot of entries over the years. The bad taste is still there the following year after having to play upper division teams.

Itís a shame how LVSSA screwed up their own event like this. I remember when this tournament was every bit at good as SSUSAís Championship, with large brackets of twenty or more teams. But it was about five years ago when some team from Wisconsin came in about two division below where they were supposed to be, and they let them do it. Itís just snowballed since then with fewer teams attending every year. And instead of trying to fix it they just put their heads in the sand and raised the prices. And some of us, like idiots (including me), are still attending. The LVSSA will continue to die on the vine until somebody in their organization wakes up and has the guts to make these teams play in the divisions where they belong.

I have been informed about the following information below from our team coach and manager. It might change again, before we arrive this weekend.

Here is stupidity at its best. The Major Plus team(Robson Ranch) playing down in the Major division, will now have to spot all the Major teams 5 runs. Is this admitting that they are really a Major Plus team? Why don't they just put them in the Major Plus division where they belong. Answer: because LVSSA does not know what they are doing.

Robson will be able to compete equally with the other Major teams, except for the 5 runs being given, and cannot win the awards, and only receive a first place trophy, if they finish first, and who knows, mayber duplicate first place awards by the end of the week. Not quite sure what is really happening with the awards. Why are they not being treated as an echibition team?? The problem with this is which Major teams will they defeat and give no chance of reaching the championship game????????? The championship game should be against Major teams, and Robson should only be allowed to compete as an exhibition team, or go play in the correct division, or give them their money back and stay home. We all know the last part is not going to happen. IS LVSSA SERIOUS?????????

Like I said before, I will never play in any LVSSA tournament again in my lifetime, nor will I miss it.

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